U.S. City Installs Cloud-Based Smart Wi-Fi For All

The city of Lincoln, Nebraska recruited Ruckus Wireless to deploy what it claims is the first cloud-based, municipal smart Wi-Fi access service, bringing wireless access to residents, visitors, and even business. The first of its kind, the network uses Ruckus’ Smart Access Management service (SAMs) to offer the free and pervasive public Wi-Fi.

To enable the SAMs for “Lincoln_Free_WiFi” (the service set identifier, or SSID, of the service), Ruckus’ Smart WiFi outdoor products leverage technology specifically developed to deliver stronger signals at longer ranges to provide a faster, more reliable connection at up to 60 Mbits/s. A gigabit fiber connection connects access points (APs) mounted at key locations on strategic assets within the city. Unlike traditional Wi-Fi technology, it can adapt to constantly changing environmental conditions to ensure consistent speeds. Ruckus manages and scales the service through the cloud.

The company’s 802.11n-compliant ZoneFlex Outdoor APs enable connections of 150 Mbps or more between mesh nodes at distances of up to 300-plus meters. They also provide advanced interference mitigation to ensure high resilience for both client and inter-node connections. The APs are particularly useful in areas that lack Ethernet cabling.

Before installing the system, Lincoln underwent extensive testing and worked to overcome the physical and technical challenges of bringing high-speed wireless connectivity to large numbers of users who simultaneously access services outdoor. Lincoln joins other Ruckus Smart WiFi deployments in San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., and in York, United Kingdom.